


My Brother and I

by galaxyeyedrops



Category: Kamen Rider Gaim
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-24
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-16 21:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1361641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxyeyedrops/pseuds/galaxyeyedrops
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a replacement parent is hard. Akira Kazuraba knows this well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Unedited and written in less than an hour so I'll be back to fix up the errors. Probably. They'll be more stuff later. Which is also something I'll get around to.

When Akira Kazuraba is sixteen, she convinces her parents to go out on a date night. She's seen them walking around for weeks with bloodshot eyes and heavy case loads (and has watched enough romance movies to believe that one candlelit dinner will change everything). Her parents object to it in the beginning, but with assurances that she'll "look after Kouta, promise", they leave. 

Three hours later, when she's halfway through her geometry homework, Akira receives a call to identify two bodies. 

The police talk about it being a random mugging but Akira can't, no, won't accept that. Her parents, she knew, made many enemies during their career. She explains it to the head detective, a tired looking woman with gray eyes and even grayer hair, but she gets nothing more than "we're very sorry for your loss". 

Her eyes burn, she can feel the tears start to well up, but she refuses to let them fall. More than anything, she wants to scream. She wants to scream at the police for not doing their jobs right, scream at her parents for dying, and most of all, scream at herself for making them. 

She doesn't.

She scribbles down her cell phone number on an old receipt, instead, begging them to call her when they find something else.

She gets back home around 3 AM to find Kouta wrapped up in a blanket, watching cartoons. He's so engrossed with the action going on the screen that he doesn't notice her return until she shuts off the TV. 

He has the decency to look sheepish before properly noticing that his sister is completely alone. 

"Where are mom and dad?" The concern is noticeable. 

"Go to sleep, Kouta." Akira says, walking to her own room and shutting the door. 

They skip school the next day and the week afterwards, as well. Both of their parents were only children, of only children, so there weren't any relatives to take them in. The Takatsukasas offer, but Akira knows she'll have to reject them. With the loss of their temple, they can barely afford feeding their own family, much less two extra mouths. 

She spends every moment that she isn't busy with funeral arrangements to look through her parents' files, looking through clients and enemies alike for some hint of their possible killer. 

The morning of the funeral, a newflash airs about Zawame City PD's Head Detective, the same woman Akira had met that day, dying in a car accident. It continues, describing her accomplishments, mentioning the grandchildren she left behind. Akira doesn't know why it's then, but that's the moment she breaks down crying. 

She's never been a pretty crier and she isn't one today, either. Her tears run streaks through her foundation, blurring up her eyeliner, but the only thing, only person Akira cares about right now is her brother. 

Her parents might be dead but he still has her. She still suspects something wrong with their deaths but she's going to drop it for now. She has to be there for him, she promised them, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have more unedited things. Yeah, all chapters are probably going to be ridiculously short...

Akira remembers when one hundred fifty thousand yen seemed like a fortune to her, remembers saving up that amount slowly over two years, and spending it on whatever frivolities she wished.

Now the amount looks pitiful, despite it being earned in a month, a fraction of that time.

Once upon a time, it was enough to buy whatever she wished, from pretty skirts to the newest games.

Now, despite all the math she puts into it, all the ways she manages to make it stretch, it barely covers food and rent for her and Kouta.

Although her parents had left behind a sizable amount of money, it was far from a fortune. She was only using it to cover necessities that her paycheck couldn’t, but at the rate the money was disappearing, it would be all gone within the next six months.

Kouta, as if sensing her dilemma, runs in through the door at that exact moment.

There’s a large cardboard box in his arms and an even larger smile on his face.

“Sis!” He says, still running towards her, not even stopping to take off his shoes. “Sis, look!”

He hands her a plain white envelope, or what used to be a plain white envelope, it’s crinkled from it’s many folds with little doodles of samurai and fruit all over it.

Inside it, however, is money totaling to be over half her monthly paycheck.

“Kouta? Where did this come from?”

From the way Kouta’s face falls, her voice comes out far more sternly than she intended.

“It’s not like that!” His words are rushed, slurred. “I just sold a few of my things. It’s stolen or anything!” He points at the cardboard box he carried in, and upon further inspection, it’s completely empty.

Akira walks into his room to find out just what he had sold, and finds his bookshelf to be bare, his video games and system gone.

He walks in behind her, having finally ditched his shoes and uniform jacket.

“No worries,” he says, “I didn’t _need_ them anyways.”


End file.
